The New York Sirens
by AFincorporated
Summary: Carmen has never been normal. Along with her best friends, she's started the vigilante hero group 'the sirens'. the avengers never approved, and have finally caught up with them. Rated T for mild language and mild violence.
1. Chapter 1

**Authors Note: hi, this is F not A. I just want to say that I don't own any of the avengers. :(**

**This is my first fanfic so i hope you like it and I would really appreciate reviews. Now to the story.**

Chapter 1

Ducking under a line of yellow police tape, I dodged behind a squad car until two officers had passed, and slipped in the door of the prison unnoticed. Inside was a plain square concrete room, full of officers and prisoners being interviewed.

My best friend, Samantha, or Sam, or Scorch, as she was sometimes known, stood next to me, sucking on hard candy and looking bored. She was dressed in a brownish-red catsuit with a black belt around her waist with a leather bag clipped to it full of hard candy. She also had black leather boots and a black mask with flames painted up the sides. Her long red hair was in a braid, and she was humming the 'star wars' theme song. She had a broken nose.

Next to her was Adana, or Harpy. Her coffee colored skin was complemented by the dark gray shirt and leggings she wore under aviatress goggles and a long white scarf wrapped around her mouth and then draped over her shoulders. She also wore a long trench coat. Her dark eyes roved the room, suspiciously landing on each person here in turn.

We ducked into the hallway.

"What do you think, Carmen? I mean, what do you think, Marauder?" Sam quickly corrected herself at my glare.

"Code names, Scorch, codenames!" I hissed. "And in answer to your question, I think this is a colossal waste of time. Two guys were clever and escaped from prison. so? The police can handle this one." I have short brown hair with bangs that slashes diagonally across my forehead. I wear a pale gold shirt, dark brown pants and belt, pale gold gloves, and a dark brown scarf wrapped around my mouth and nose.

"I agree," Sam said, wrinkling her nose as the sourball in her mouth made her lips pucker.

"I don't think so." Adana said thoughtfully, pulling some papers out of who-knows-where. "I found a copy of the official report, and-"

"Found or stole?" Sam asked, but Adana kept talking like she hadn't heard her.

"The police are stumped. Two men in a locked room with undisturbed bars on the windows melted clear through the wall and are now loose in the city."

"Through the wall? Let me see." I took the folder from her and stared at a photograph. What looked like lava had melted through a two-foot thick concrete wall, leaving a hole large enough for two men to climb out of. "Okay, so this one is a dead-center hit." I admitted. "But after two dozen police boots have been through here, there won't be any clues we can't get from this photo. We should go before we're spotted. Blizzard and Nightshade will be waiting for us."

We left the building without being spotted by anyone other then a stray cat in the street. My magic at work again, I thought with a slight smile. We went down an alley and jumped into the sewers from a manhole in the ground. Somehow I managed to land on the one dry spot in the large pipe, but the other two weren't so lucky, landing in the muddy and foul-smelling water in the middle of the sewer line.

Adana helped Sam up. Sam had fallen on her back in the water and tried to wring out her hair as we walked. We twisted and turned through a maze of pipes and channels, taking us to under the heart of New York city itself. At a dead end was a door similar to that of a bank vault. punching some numbers into a keypad to one side of it, the door slid open with a hiss.

It opened into a large brightly lit room with doors opening into other rooms. A large computer screen was built into the wall to our right, programmed to scan the news, security footage, and computer cameras for suspicious crimes. A round table surrounded by chairs in the middle of the room had open files, photographs, and typed documents spread over it. Lounging on a couch and watching cartoons was Blizzard and Nightshade, otherwise known as Agatha and Cecily. Agatha wore a white catsuit with spiral baby blue designs up the arms and her milky blond hair was loose around her shoulders. Next to her, Cecily's dark green catsuit was identical with black leaf designs and red hair of the same length but in pigtails.

"Your back!" Cecily leaped off the couch and tackle-hugged me, like I'd been gone for years not an hour. She always acted that way though. She and Agatha were twin mutants. Their parents had been killed in a car accident five years ago, when the twins were eight. Ever since, "Nightshade" had been nervous and clingy and frightened that something would happen to us. Agatha had been just as affected. She was same personality wise, but she had refused to speak ever since. After so long, I wondered if she could even speak any more.

Agatha waved cheerfully at me. Then she rubbed her stomach and pointed at the fridge in one corner. Cecily pulled away from me and explained.

"We ran out of food. We're hungry. Can we go eat now?" Cecily spoke quickly like she had drunk three sodas. But she was always like that.

Agatha rushed into one of the bedrooms, and come out a few seconds later in civilian clothes. Blonde hair in pigtails, jean overalls and faded blue windbreaker. She was beaming, rubbing her stomach and tapping her foot as if to say, '_get a move on! I'm hungry!'_. We all changed into normal clothes.

We couldn't go out in costume. We had to stay of the main roads in civilian clothes anyway. See, we're heroes. In New York. But we haven't registered with the Avengers, who _also_ lived in New York. And they were dead set on catching us and putting us into foster care. I shuddered subconsciously. I couldn't think about it, I had to move forward, and I could never look back, or the memories would crush me. I pushed those memories to the back of my brain, and locked the door on them.

When we were all ready, we climbed out through a manhole cover in a back alley where nobody ever saw us. There was a tiny little Mexican restaurant a few blocks away that we went to as often as we could afford.

The waitresses here all knew us, and the cooks let us have free homemade flan. We sat at our usual table at the back, and everything was good. But as we got up to leave, I had the funniest feeling, the kind of feeling you get when someones watching you. I glanced over my shoulder, but there was no one there. We continued around the corner, and making sure that no one was there, we climbed into the sewers.

In the pipes, I had the same feeling as at the restaurant. '_no one is there.'_ I told myself sternly. '_You're getting jumpy. No one is there.'_ Inside our hideout, Agatha and Cecily went back to their cartoons, and Adana studied some old crime files. Sam fell asleep in her specially fireproof room, flames flickering up her arms as she snored.

I went in my room to read, still trying to shake the feeling that we were being watched.

Suddenly, a loud crash came from the front room. I heard Sam swear, and immediately I snatched a pocket knife out of my dresser and sprinted into the room. Iron man was fighting Nightshade and BLizzard, who were putting up a heck of a fight were two twelve-year-olds. Nightshade sent blackberries and roses growing up over his suit, and he was having a heck of a time getting a shot at them past Blizzards ice wall.

A red-haired women was trying to subdue Adana, and… was that the hulk? Fighting Sam?

I glanced around, and turned around just in time to avoid Captain America's shield. I ducked to one side and slashed at him with my pocket knife as he tried to grab my arm. We both looked stared, surprised, at a slash on his palm. We both quickly recovered and began to fight again. I managed to dent his shield a lot, and he tripped me up so that I twisted my ankle.

Somewhere behind me, Sam cried out in pain. The Cap and I both turned to see what had happened. Iron man was wrapped in ivy vines, and Adana seemed to be unconscious, surrounded by the remnants of a chair, but the real trouble was Sam.

Hulk had her in one enormous green hand, and threw her at the wall. She crumpled, and Hulk bellowed in victory.

"Get Sam out of the way!" I yelled to the cap.

"What are you going to do?" he asked as he dragged her towards the door.

"Take on the giant lima bean." I said, hurtling straight towards the Hulk, doing some quick calculations in my head. '_I can't take him down by force. I'll have to go the other way with this one.'_

"Hi." I said casually to Hulk, hands in the pocket of my hoodie.

"Hulk smash!" He bellowed, but I didn't move.

"No, Hulk won't smash." I told him sternly. He looked confused. "You won't smash because inside you don't want to smash at all. Do you?"

"Hulk no smash?" He asked.

"Hulk no smash." I confirmed. He leaned down in front of me and growled.

"Hulk _smash_."

"No. Because inside you don't want to hurt me. Inside your just a regular guy. You're not Hulk. Your Dr. Banner, and the last thing you want to do is smash." As I watched, hulk began to shrink. His skin lost its green color. He became a man in torn clothes and a sheepish smile.

"Nice to meet you, ." I said cheerfully, shaking the dazed man's hand. We turned to find everyone else in the room staring at me. "What?" I asked.

"How did you do that, young lady?" Dr. Banner asked. "Even I can't control the other guy, and he's inside my body.

"Doesn't matter." I said. "Is Sam okay?" I asked the cap and Blizzard, who were crouched over her. Blizzard/Cecily gave me a thumbs up. Sam was conscious now, looking dazed and in pain, but alive.

"I'm good boss." Sam said weakly. "Well, not good, but I'm still alive which is a bonus." She pushed away cap and Blizzard. "Just a sec, I need to…." She burst into flames. Cap fell backwards in shock.

The red-headed women actually went so far as to point a fire extinguisher at Sam, but I snatched it out of her hands.

"No, its okay." I said. "Fire helps her."

"_Fire_ helps her?" Iron man was still wrapped in vines. "Well thats more then a little bit odd."

"so why were you attacking us anyway?" I asked, suddenly remembering.

"Don't remember." Iron man shrugged.

"We were going to peacefully convince you to stop this hero nonsense, but wing girl over there attacked, and pretty soon we were all fighting." It was the first time the red-haired women spoke. Racking my brains, I remembered that her name was Natasha Romanoff, the "Black widow". She kept her expression calm and level.

"Thought so." I sighed. "Operation Steam Heat, ladies."

"Whats-" Dr. Banner started to ask, but Sam reached into her bag of candy and pulled out a one-inch thick iron orb from underneath her reserves of hotheads. She plugged her nose with her hand, and smashed the orb on the ground. There was a bang, a flash of light, and a plume of purple gas. The avengers all keeled over, except for the still-tied up Iron Man, who had a helmet on.

"What is that stuff?" He asked. "What did you do to them?" We all ignored him. Blizzard and Nightshade lifted Adana, and Sam hobbled along with them. We were at the door, when I was tackled from behind by Iron Man.

Apparently, powerful as Nightshade is, she can't carry someone twice her size and control plants at the same time.

"Go!" I yelped, kicking Iron Man in the head. "I'm right behind you!"

"But-" Sam was coming back to help. The avengers were stirring. "Get out of here!" I yelled, lifting a chair leg and smashing the control panel connected to the door. It slid shut wit a click, my friends on the other side.

"That should buy them some time." I muttered, as Iron Man whacked me on the head with his metal gauntlets, and everything went black around me.


	2. Chapter 2

**Don't own the Avengers. Please review. On to the story.**

Chapter 2

I woke up with a splitting headache, unsure of where I was. It was… A jail cell? Not exactly. The bed I was lying on was plush, the walls made of wood, a carpet on the floor, yet one wall was bars into a hallway.

Then I remembered everything. I pressed the palms of my hands against my eyes, trying desperately not to cry. Caught by the Avengers, who would surely send me to foster care or some juvenile delinquent place. At least everybody else had gotten away.

At the end of the hallway, I heard footsteps and voices. I quickly pretended to be asleep.

"-have to hit her so hard?" The first voice said. It sounded like Dr. Banner. "She has a mild concussion, for goodness sake."

"The kid was almost away, what else could I do?" Iron Man. Tony Stark.

"At least we caught one of them." Natasha Romanoff. "She can tell us where the others went. Including those little girl's." She said the last part with an emphasis on 'little' like she was teasing someone.

"Hey! Those kids were vicious!" Stark protested. They were in front of my room now. "Oh, kids still asleep."

"No she's not." Romanoff said. "I saw her eyelids twitch a second ago." I opened my eyes again. Romanoff, Stark, and Banner stood in front of my cell.

"Hello." I said with a forced cheerful smile. "Now, why am I here, and where is here?" I scanned their faces. "I'm guessing Stark tower. Am I right?" Their shocked faces told me I was right. "Now then. Why am I here?"

"Um, you're here, um, because…." Stark gaped at me, but couldn't think up a snippy response. At least Dr. Banner kept his wits about him.

"Your here for your own safety." I said. "We rescued you, in some effects."

"Rescued me?" My anger, bubbling below the surface, erupted. "_Rescued_ me? You broke into my home, attacked me and my friends, and then you kidnapped me, but of course, it was for _my own safety._" I glowered at them from my side of the bars.

Stark opened his mouth to argue, but I wasn't done yet.

"And you know that you have no legal right to hold me? I have broken no laws, and therefore you can't keep me. Your kidnappers by law. If you let me go now, I won't even press charges."

Romanoff gave her first smile.

"Your good kid. But I think you'll find," She pulled some papers out of her pocket. "That Carmen Moore is wanted for pickpocketing, shoplifting, assault, and the kidnapping of Agatha and Cecily Robinson."

Samantha POV:

Sam felt like a weak idiot. She had blundered into a fight with no weapon but her flame, and those had been useless. She'd gotten herself seriously injured, and hadn't been able to help her best friend Carmen when she had needed it.

And now Carmen was a prisoner of the Avengers, probably on her way back to Ms. Cooper's Home For Wayward Girl's, or as Sam thought of it, Ms. Coopers dungeon pretending to be a castle.

Sam remembered place, and what things had been like there. The other girl's had been cruel and selfish, sometimes stealing precious food from younger girl's. I remembered freezing nights in beds under a dripping roof and wind through a cracked window over her bed. Sam had never met her own parents. Ms..Cooper had always refused to tell her a thing about them.

When Sam and Carmen were little, Adana had come there. She was still only three at the time, but she had protected them when she was older. Sam had always thought that was why Adana had become so suspicious and serious. In her mind she was still looking out for them. Then, when Adana was sixteen and Carmen and Sam were thriteen, Agatha and Cecily had come to the home, and a year and a half later we had run away together.

Sam always thought about that when she was sad or scared, though it just made her feel worse. She thought about it as they sat on rocks underneath a pier, in the rain.

Adana was still knocked out, laying on he wings in an awkward position that couldn't be comfortable. Agatha and Cecily were asleep. Sam's ribs hurt, and she ahd a headache, and rocks really weren't super comfy, so she was awake, with three jolly ranchers in her mouth, helping her think.

She pulled a photo of Carmen and her at the fair. That had been a couple of years ago. The smiles on their faces were happy, carefree. That was before they had discovered their powers. Carmen smirked at the camera, in jeans and a dirty hoodie. In the backround of the photo, adults gave us sideways glances, wondering who the scruffily dressed teenagers were.

Sam sighed and shoved it back in her pocket, with a silent promise. "I will find you." She whispered, readjusting her seat on a barnacle covered rock. She drifted into restless sleep.

Tony Stark's POV

The kid bugged him. She didn't seem worried about escaping. She was a model student, never trying to get out. He wished she would, because maybe then he would feel less guilty about keeping her in a cell.

The look on the kids face when Natasha had shown her the legal order for her arrest. The look on the kids face, like she was seeing an unfriendly ghost…. He didn't want to think about it. This was for her own good. She needed a stable family and a environment where she could live and grow in safety.

He chuckled at himself. '_Nice presentation of the speech you gave the kid.'_ He kept working on his breastplate for his Iron Man suit, and took a sip of wine. It tasted nasty. He didn't really care that much. The rose's thorns had scratched the circuitry up pretty bad. He reconnected a wire and glanced at the security camera on the kids cell. She was looking at something. A scrap of paper.

Freezing the screen and zooming in, he saw that it was a photo of two adults, a man and a woman in a wedding dress. They were laughing. The picture made him feel terrible. The kids parents, he realized. He turned the camera off and sat alone, worrying in the dark.

**Author's note: I really hope you guys like this story so far. Sorry if Tony Stark is kinda ooc, that scene wasn't super well thought out. Next chapter by this time next week.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hi, this is F, I don't own any of the Avengers. I hope you enjoy the story. **

Chapter 3, Sam's POV

Sam hurried down the street, hat pulled low to defend against the relentless rain. Under her worn jacket was a grocery bag full of bread, water, and fruit, the only things that didn't need to be refrigerated and were healthy enough that Adana would let them eat.

For the last three days they had been living off of sourballs, jolly ranchers, hot heads, puckerup supremes, and joinxs, but Sam's candy supply was running low.

Sam turned towards the waterfront, where they had made camp on the narrow stretch of sand underneath pier 34. Somewhere in the distance, thunder boomed, and Sam broke into a run. She absolutely despised getting wet, almost as much as she hated non Mac computers and raisins.

Climbing underneath pier 34, Sam wrung out her soaked hat and pulled the only slightly damp grocery bag from under her coat.

The shelter they had been living in was basically a lean-to made out of driftwood and old sheets. It smelled like low tide and was constantly falling down, though it was better then nothing.

Next to it, Adana, Cecily (Nightshade) and Agatha (BLizzard) were huddled around a tiny fire.

"Cheer up, all." Sam called, forcing her habitual cheery smile onto her face. "We are _not _having candy for dinner tonight!" Cecily whooped, and Agatha did a little dance. Adana just flapped her wings a couple of times.

After three days without a shower or clean clothes, they all looked pretty ragged. Cecily's pink shirt had a tear on the sleeve, and her hands were grimy. One of the straps had broken on Agatha's overalls, so it hung down revealing the red sweater underneath. Adana had sand in her feathers and was missing a shoe. Sam knew she looked just as bad.

They ate in silence. Sam knew they were all thinking about Carmen, or The Marauder. She had given up her freedom to save them, and not even Sam's attempts at jokes could cheer them up.

They were all finished eating and were laying on blankets in the lean to, trying to sleep, when Sam said something they had all been thinking.

"We have to find her." Sam said.

"How?" Adana asked miserably. Nobody needed to ask who they were talking about. "She was taken by the Avengers, what are we supposed to do? Ask nicely?"

"I don't know." Sam said, going pink. "But I do know we have to try. She'd do the same for us." We tried to think of what to do, but we had no ideas. The rain kept falling, as four girl's alone in the city slowly lost whatever hope they had had left, of seeing their best friend ever again.

Carmen's POV

Romanaff gave me the heebie jeebies. I could never tell what she was thinking or feeling, and the way she stared at me made me feel really self-concious. I was eating a grilled cheese sandwich and doodling an idea of mine, when I felt the prickling sensation on my neck that told me she was back.

I set down the sandwich and turned to look at her. Her red hair curled under her ears, and her impassive expression one again unnerved me.

"Hi." I said after a moment, when she showed no signs of speaking.

"Hello." She said. "You need to come with me. We have a few questions for you." I rolled my eyes, but followed her without complaint. She took me into a small room with metal walls. The only things in the room were a metal table and a chair. "Turn out your pockets." She said, and I handed her a pencil, a few rubber bands, the photo of my parents, and a few nuts and bolts, bits of scrap metal, and wire.

I sat in the chair and fiddled with the zipper on my hoodie. Romanoff left the room. The Avengers seemed to trust me. She didn't even lock the door. When she came back, Iron man and the captain were with her.

"Hullo." I said, trying to sound cheerful. They just inclined their heads. "She said you had a few questions?"

"How did you get your powers?" Captain asked, though Iron man looked annoyed like he hadn't wanted the cap to ask that.

"Always had them." I shrugged.

"Anyways, to get to the _reason were here_." Iron man said pointedly. "Where are your friends hiding?" I tried not to smirk, but couldn't manage it.

"How should I know?" I asked, not forcing happiness for once. This meant that after three days, the Avengers hadn't found them. "We set up a few safehouses of course, then theres a few places we've hidden before, and a few places they would go because they didn't think you'd check there…." I trailed off. A nasty thought had just occurred to me. "Though its almost definitely none of those."

"Why not?" Cap asked, puzzled.

"Because, I know about those places, flag face. And you questioning me about this was inevitable. They would have gone someplace I wouldn't expect. I can't help you."

"Where would they not go?" Romanoff asked. "Where is the last place on earth you would look?"

"Not saying." I smirked. "Then you would look there."

Iron Man leaned down in my face and growled. His breath smelled like beer. "You're going to tell us, alright."

"No, I'm not." I said calmly. "This was fun. Can I go back to my room now? I was eating lunch."

"Kid, we are trying to help." Captain said, pulling Stark back and pushing him into the hall, with many protests. "What are you so afraid of?"

'_If only you knew.'_ I thought, but I didn't say that. "I'm not afraid of anything. Harpy and Scorch can handle whatever orphanage or screwed up foster family you throw them into, and so can I, but BLizzard and Nightshade deserve better then that. So I'm not telling you anything." He just looked at me sadly and didn't say anything.

Something in his eyes made me want to trust him. Something made me want to tell him where they were.

"Promise you won't hurt them." I said quietly. "Promise not to send them back to foster care."

"I promise." He said. I smiled.

"Exactly. I'm not going to tell you that I can think of thirteen places in this city where they might hide. I'm not going to tell you that the orphanage we used to live in on 39th and Pine is the last place I would ever look. And I'm certainly not going to tell you that under the piers would be another place I would never look because Scorch hates getting wet."

Iron man came back into the room, scribbling addresses on a notepad as I talked. A tiny smile spread across Romanoff's face, the first I had seen there.

When I had given them everywhere I could think of, Iron man hurried out and Romanoff left too.

"Can I go with you?" I asked the cap as he turned to go as well. "I want to make sure their safe." He thought about it, then nodded.

"Put your shoes on, and be ready to go in five. I'll meet you back here."

I went back to my room, put on my worn sneakers and found a warmer jacket hanging up for me in the closet. I met the cap back at the interrogation room, and we left together.

"First on our third of the list." Cap said as we drove away from Stark tower, "The abandoned apartment building on 30th."

After a couple of hours, we had had no luck. Cap called the others, and learned that they hadn't found the sirens either. "Last on our list." Cap said wearily. "Under the piers."

The waterfront smelled like salt water and fish. Seagulls circled overhead, and the Statue of Liberty loomed in the harbor. We glanced under each pier, having no luck until we reached 34. I leaned down and immediately knew that the tiny lean-to underneath the pier was where Adana, Sam, Agatha, and Cecily were hiding.

"Their here." I said, standing up again before I was spotted. A knot was forming in my stomach. I had lead our enemies right to their door. They would be mad. I suddenly wished I hadn't eaten so much of that grilled cheese sandwich.

Cap pulled out is phone, and in 15 minutes Iron man and Black widow were there.

"I should go first." I said numbly, staring at my shoes. "They…. They trust me." The others sensed how hard this was for me.

"Its for the best, Carmen." cap said. I nodded and climbed under the pier. I hurried over to the tent.

"You guys in here?" I asked, ducking inside. I was immediately tackle hugged by four people at once.

"How are you?"

"How did you escape?"

"How did you find us?"

The barrage of questions overwhelmed me.

"Come on." I said, disentangling myself. "Theres no time to explain. We have to go." They trusted me. They followed me. I lead them up above, right to the waiting Avengers.

Sam's POV

I couldn't beleive it when Carmen just waltzed up to us like nothing had happened. She looked kind of sweaty and pale, like she might vomit, and wouldn't look me me the eyes. I really should have seen the signs, but silly me I followed her and now I'm in a cell in Stark Tower with Agatha. Adana and Cecily are across from us. Carmen's room in down the hall. There's no lock on her door, unlike ours.

The next time I see her I'm going to punch her in the face.

She sold us out! I can't believe it. I don't want to believe it, but the proof is in the form of a fireproof padlock on my door. She betrayed us. I would have trusted her with my life. And she betrayed us.

Adana's POV

Sam is furious, Agatha is in shock, and Cecily bursts into tears at the slightest thing. I have no idea what to do. I feel like the world is caving in around me, and theres nothing at all I can do about it.

We were there a day before Carmen came to see us. Her brown hair was neatly combed with a little braid down one side, and she wore new clothes, a denim jacket, t-shirt, and jeans.

Iron man was with her. He opened the door to our room, said something quietly to her, and closed the door behind her.

"Hi, Adana." She said cautiously, like trying to decide whether to feed a dog or run from it. "Hi Cecily." Neither of us spoke. Cecily wouldn't even look at her. "I know how this must look to you, but-"

"How this must look? How this must look?" Cecily was practically yelling. "You gave us up, Carmen! You turned us over to our enemies for what? New clothes and a nice room? How could you do this to us?" No, I take it back. Not practically yelling. More like shouting at the top of her lungs.

"No, I-" Carmen made a desperate attempt at an explanation, but Cecily cut her off again.

"I thought we were friends! You were like family to me, and you betrayed us! Stabbed me in the back!" Angry tears started to pour down Cecily's face. Carmen moved to comfort her, but she shoved her away.

"Just go, Carmen." I said, surprised by the cold in my own voice. Cecily hugged me around the waist. "Just go. You've done enough damage." She looked like she wanted to protest, to do something, but she hurried out of the room, turned so that we couldn't see what I expected were tears on her face.

She brushed tears off her face as Stark closed the door behind her. She didn't go into Sam and Agatha's room. She just left, pausing for a second to set a folded piece of notebook paper on the bed.

When Cecily had stopped crying, I unfolded the paper and read a letter in Carmen's familiar hand.

Dear Adana and Cecily,

Please forgive me for what I did. I know that would be easier for you to do if I said sorry, but I'm not sorry I did it. Well, maybe a little. But you have to know I thought that this was the best way, and still do.

Living on the streets isn't the way we should be living. Cecily and Agatha deserve to go to school, Sam should finish high school. Adana, you and I should go to college. We can't do that if every day is a struggle to live.

I know you see these people as you enemies, but they are trying to help us, in ways we sorely need. After living with them for a few days, I know that they wouldn't send us back to Ms. Coopers if we tell them what it was like there.

Sam still looks like she would kill me if I got too close, so please tell her all this from me. Tell Agatha too.

You are all like family to me, and I wish that somehow this could have happened without you getting hurt, but I saw no way of this happening.

I hope that one day you can find it in yourselves to forgive me. Meanwhile, the Avengers are thinking about training us to better control our powers. I haven't told them what mine is yet. I won five impossible bets in a row with Iron Man the other day.

All my love,

Carmen

**The Masked Marauder**

**`**That evening, when Carmen came back, I was ready. Cecily and I were seated around a round table that was bolted to the ground, the letter open in front of us. When Stark opened the door and she entered, looking weary and travel-worn, with a defeated, I-need-to-try-one-last-time-before-I-give-up sort of look on her face.

I had planned a session of grilling her on the letter, but Cecily burst into tears again and tackle-hugged Carmen, and my plans of pretending to be angry melted into a puddle of goo on the floor.

"I'm sorry I was mad!" Cecily sobbed. I couldn't help but smirk at the terrified look on Carmen's face, as she patted the younger girl awkwardly on the back. "I thought- I thought-"

"Thats okay." Carmen squeaked, disentangling herself.

The next day the avengers began to train us.

**Authors note: please review! this is my first fanfic and I would really appreciate reviews. Next chapter eventually. -F**


	4. Chapter 4

**Authors Note: Once again, I don't own the avengers. I would also really like to thank IAmLegendNotMyth for reviewing my fan fic! Any input is appreciated, since this is my first fan fic. ANYONE WHO READS THIS, PLEASE TAKE LIKE A QUARTER SECOND TO DISCOVER WHAT THAT LITTLE BOX AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SCREEN DOES! Maybe even write something in it. Also, this is still F not A. **

Chapter 4

Carmen's POV

"Hit it again." Romanoff said, arms crossed. I uppercutted the punching bag and followed with a right hook. "Again." She said stubbornly. "You're still not trying."

"I am trying." I gritted my teeth. Everyone else was training with their powers. Adana was flying through hoops, Sam was in a completely fireproof boxing ring on the roof, and Cecily and Agatha were sparring. My power wasn't the sort of thing you can improve on. I can't control my luck. It comes and goes.

"Again. _Try_ to hurt it. Picture your worst enemies face there. You don't want to hit it, so your not trying. Now, strike again." I glared at the punching bag, and tried to picture Ms. Cooper from the orphanage, and the leader of the gang that had mugged me once, and every bully and jerk and self-obsessed popular kid who had ever called me names or shoved me in the hall. I saw officer Shirley, and Jessica Brown, and everyone I had ever hated.

I realized that I could hit the punching bag as hard as I wanted, and I wouldn't get in trouble for it.

I swung my left fist so hard at the bag that it swung hard to the side. I punched it mercilessly, ending with a roundhouse kick so hard that it went flying off its hook and slammed into the wall.

Romanoff smiled, and it was only the second time I had seen her do it.

"Kid," She said. "How on earth did you do that?"

"I picture everyone I hate." I ran a hand through my hair, trying to give a stupid grin at having impressed her. "I hate kind of a lot of people."

"I think thats enough for today." She said, lifting the punching bag back onto its hook. "But there's something I've been meaning to ask you."

"What's that?" I asked, pulling off the boxing gloves and walking with her into the kitchen.

"What's your special power?" She asked. "For the others its obvious, but I just can't figure out yours. Its been driving me crazy. So what is it?"

"I'm lucky." I told her, smirking at the look of confusion on her face. "Games of chance, card games, gambling, betting…. It will always go in my favor. It even works in real life sometimes."

"How does that work?" She asked.

"Its like if I focus on someone, they trip over their own feet or make a stupid bet or just plain don't see me. I take away their luck and keep it for myself. It's really pretty useful."

"I can imagine." She said,but her face remained expressionless. "If you don't mind me asking, where are you from? You have to have lived somewhere before you became vigilantes."

I knew that I must have looked stormy at that because she quickly added, "If you don't want to tell me-"

"No, its okay." I ran a hand up and down the counter, trying to decide what to say. After a moment I said, "I'm an orphan. Or I think so." Before she could ask, I added "My parents abandoned me when I was just a baby." I didn't look up. I didn't want her sympathy. "I was left on the doorstep of… a really awful orphanage. Sam was there too, but her parents were definitely gone. When we were three, Adana came and she took care of us. When I was fifteen, Cecily and Agatha came to the orphanage, and…. Well some stuff went down. We had to go, for our safety, and thats when we started trying to use our powers to help people." We stood in silence.

"Ever try to find them?" Romanoff asked suddenly. "Your parents?"

"Yeah." I scuffed my shoe on the floor. I didn't want to tell her, but I felt I owed her one. "Once. I didn't like what I found."

We wandered out of the kitchen in silence. We watched the others train for a while, but I soon tired of that, and I went back to my room. They had disabled the camera to my room when they had started trusting me. I glanced around to make sure nobody was there. The hallway outside of my room was empty. Opening my closet, I pulled out the jacket I had been wearing the day the Avengers had caught me. Taking my swiss army knife out of my back pocket, I cut open the lining of one of the sleeves of my jacket. Reaching into the inside of the jacket, I pulled out a silver flash drive covered in dust.

Slipping down the hall, I went into Starks lab and plugged it into one of the computers.

Saved on the old flash drive was at least two dozen documents from the government, the orphanage, law firms, hospitals, colleges, the police, and every place in the world I thought my parents might have been.

The evidence was conclusive. My parents did not exist.


	5. Chapter 5

**Authors note: hiya, this is F again. Thank you thank you thank you everybody who reviewed the story, so helpful. Anyways, onto the story now. **

Carmen's POV

"And that, kid, is how you reprogram the times square jumbo trons to say, 'IRON MAN is awesome' using only a gallon of yogurt, a screwdriver, and a ski pole." Stark finished. I just stared at him.

"Wait, what?" I asked. "Why were you even telling me that in the first place? Its not useful at all, and when you started the story it was only half a gallon of yogurt."

"GIve the kid a break, Stark." Dr. Banner said, glancing up from his newspaper. "She looks like shes about to fall asleep. And she's right, it was only half a gallon."

Stark scowled. "You know what your problem is? You pay too much attention." Banner and I stifled our laugh as as Stark pouted and left the room. "See if I ever tell you two a story again." Banner went back to his newspaper and I was about to go back to my room, when Stark swung back into the room.

"Almost forgot." He said. "That other kid that bursts into flame sometimes was asking to see you."

"She was?" I asked, my throught was tight. Sam was asking to see me. I thought that she was still mad at me. I thought she never wanted to see me again. He nodded.

"Keys to her room are on the kitchen counter." He left again, and I stumbled down the other hallway to the kitchen, snatched the key off the counter and turned down towards Sam's room. I slowed down the closer I got to her room, dragging my feet and running my hand along one wall. When I finally reached her room, my hands were shaking too much and I dropped the key.

I opened the door and stepped inside, where Sam was leaning back on two legs of her chair.

"Hi." I said. Sam was out of her chair and on top of me in a second, flat. She punched me in the face so hard I fell on my back. I could feel my nose break. She raised a foot to stomp on me but I rolled out of the way and scrambled to my feet, hands clutched to my bleeding and throbbing nose. "I just want to talk!" I said, dodging a kick to the shins.

"You didn't want to talk when you betrayed us! You gave us up when we trusted you, and now you expect it to be all better? I hate you! I hate you I hate you I hate you!"

"I'm sorry! I really am!" Sam shot a fireball at me, that missed my face by a couple of inches. That was encouraging, because if she wanted me dead, I would be flame broiled already. "I thought it was for the best!"

"How would that be for the best?" She tackled me, smashing my already broken nose on the concrete floor.

"Ow! Crap! Get off me!" I struggled, but she had my arms pinned.

"Sam get off of her!" A voice from the doorway that I recognized immediately as Adana. I wriggled around so that I was on my back, facing Sam who was sitting on my stomach.

"Why should I? She sold us out to the Avengers!"

"Sam, this isn't right! She didn't sell us out, she gave us a safe place to live for the first time that we can remember! She gave us a chance at a normal life for once! Ceci and Agatha can go to school! We can go whenever we want! The Avengers are trying to help us!"

Sam stopped trying to punch me, but she kept my arms pinned.

"Now get off her." Adana said. I wished Sam would let me up. I could feel blood trickling down my face from my nose, which was really starting to hurt. She slowly got up, and then without warning stomped on my stomach.

"SAM!"

"Sorry. I slipped." I pushed myself into a sitting position with my feet and leaned against the wall, trying to stem the flow of blood from my nose with my sleeve.

"Let me help." Adana said, trying to pull my hands away from my nose.

"I'm fine." Sam was starting to look a little guilty.

"Sorry about that." She said uncomfortably. "I just…. I,um…." My nose told me to not accept the apology, but the rest of me cared more about my friendship with Sam then my broken nose.

"It's okay. Really."

**Also, to the person who was too lazy to log on: yes we both run the account. I like pointing out that A isn't me even though people might be able to tell the dif. because we have really different writing styles. **

**To irrational bookworm: I tried to show a bit more interaction at the beginning, not sure if i managed it. **

**Another thank you to everybody else who has reviewed,**

**-F**


	6. Chapter 6

**AN: thank you everybody who reviewed. I don't own the avengers. And without further ado-**

Agatha's POV

The familiar icy tingling sensation spread through my hands, the ice escaping my hands and solidifying in front of me, white and shiny and cold. The ice spread upward and formed itself into the shape I held in my mind. A spear as tall as I was fell into my waiting hands.

"Awesome." Cecily beamed at me. "We're totally gonna win this." Cecily was the only one who sort of understood. The others whispered amongst themselves why I never spoke. But I _can't_ talk, not even if I wanted too, and I don't. I've tried a few times, but no noise comes out.

"What're you two waiting for?" Adana asked, landing next to us and folding her wings neatly on her back. "The games about to start. I just hid our flag, and Natasha signaled their ready. Hurry up." We were going to play capture the flag in the middle of Central Park, the Sirens on one team, the Avengers on the other.

"Coming." Cecily said. I said the same, but only in my head. Ceci scooped up the tiny sphere shaped cacti she had been growing to throw at the other team.

"You two remember the rules, right?" Adana asked, pulling her long overcoat on over her wings and buttoning up the front.

"We can use powers to prepare but not in the game, we know, lets go!" We ran down the path to where Hulk had dug a trench as the dividing line. Sam was already there, and she and Carmen had clearly been arguing.

My heart sank. I hated that they fought now, not only because we would lose if they didn't have their heads in the game. The thing was, they never used to fight, and now they were at it almost constantly, arguing and shouting. It hadn't come to blows since that first time, but I wasn't sure Sam wouldn't fly off the handle one of these days.

I hoisted the ice spear, and strode over to them. Carmen broke off whatever she was saying at the sight of me approaching.

"Ready?" Sam asked, popping another jolly rancher in her own mouth and turning her back on Carmen. I just nodded, brandishing the spear. Cecily showed her the grocery bag full of caci grenades.

"WERE READY!" Carmen shouted at the trees on the Avengers side of the playing area. "LETS DO THIS!" They emerged from the trees, and Carmen grinned. "Now then. Lets start. What took you so long anyways?"

"Busy getting ready to beat you punks." Cap called across the trench, but he was smiling. He had left his shield and helmet at the tower, Natasha had no knives hidden on her person, and Stark had left his armor off. Dr. Banner looked only mildly interested as he trailed along behind the others.

"Ready, set, go!" Sam yelled, and all hell broke loose. Sam and Carmen ran, perfectly in sync, and leaped the trench in harmony. I could tell right away that they were going to compete, and not care about which team won, but who got the flag. They both wanted to best the other.

At the same time, Romanoff did the same, passing them mid-air on her way over the gap. Stark turned and sped into the trees, pursued by Carmen, while Banner led Sam off the other way, faking them both out. Ceci, laughing like a maniac, threw a volley of cacti at the cap, who nimbly dodged all but one, that left three needles in his arm.

Romanoff was heading towards where Cecily and me had pretended to hide the flag, right where I had prepared an ice slick in her path. I rushed to the place where a clear layer of ice spread over the path. Romanoff sped around the corner, and went flying on the slick. I quickly leveled my spear at her chest.

"Fine. You got me, kid." Romanoff rose and I led her to the edge of the tiny pond that was serving as my team's 'jail'. On my way back to the trench, the cap went barreling past me towards the trench, and he was _carrying our flag_. With a mad (though silent) war cry, I tackled him, and the flag went flying into the pond.

With the flag missing in action, it was a standoff, so neither team won. The two slightly depressed teams headed back to the tower. In the car, Carmen and Sam started arguing again. It was in whispers, so that the rest of the car wouldn't overhear, but I knew they were fighting.

Nobody else had heard. They hadn't noticed that I had heard them. I leaned towards them, to catch their conversation.

"That dosen't mean-"

"You can't blame-"

"-I just-"

"How could you-"

"Forgive me?" That last one hung in the air between them like fog. I could tell it had been Carmen.

"I can try." Sam sighed, giving up. "But those wounds go deep. You have to give me time." Carmen nodded. They both stopped talking now, and I went over the tidbits I had heard in my head.

Sam was forgiving Carmen? I thought she never would. It was about time. the Avengers were actually really nice, especially Tony Stark. He let me have coffee yesterday, but then Adana came in and yelled at him, so he had to pour it down the sink. But then when she was gone he made more.

In the backseat of the car, with a tiny smile on my face, I fell asleep.

As usual, I dreamed of the orphanage where I had lived for two years, after my parents had been killed in the car crash. I don't remember the crash. A flash of light - a roaring sound- and then waking up in the ambulance.

The doctors told me later that it was a miracle I was alive. I should have died. An anonymous bystander had pulled me out before the car exploded. Cecily had been thrown into some bushes.

Then we had gone to the funeral. I didn't say anything. I never did again. My carefree sister changed too. She became upset when I left for too long, so I rarely did. We had been taken to 'The Orphanage' as I called it. The name had been painted on a sign, but I had never bothered to read it. It was an orphanage. That was all I needed to know.

It was then that it really hit me. We were orphans.

There we met Sam, Adana, and Carmen. New family, in a way.

And then we had found out about our powers. I remembered that day like it was yesterday.

Cecily and I had been walking to school from the orphanage, when we were ambushed by the school bully, Jessica Brown. She had stringy, greasy black hair and a permanent scowl that made her look like a vulture.

She shoved me into an alley, where she could beat me up without honest citizens seeing. Cecily tried to help, but Jessica shoved her backward against the wall.

"Get out of it, punk." She growled, and Cecily ran out of the alley. I got ready to fight. I had to protect myself from Jessica by myself. "Gimme your lunch money, punk." She snarled.

I shook my head. She advanced, cornering me. She raised a meaty fist, and I instinctively threw my hands up in front of me. An odd tingling spread through my hands, and…. nothing happened. I couldn't hear Jessica, so I lowered my hands to see what had happened.

She was covered in ice, frozen in place.

I screamed, I ran, I didn't want to know how that had happened, I just wanted to be gone, as far away as I could be. I ran straight into Cecily, who had Sam, Carmen, and Adana with her.

"Oh, here she is." Cecily said, helping me up from where I had fallen. "Are you okay?"

I shook my head, tears on my face. I grabbed Sam's hand, and tried to drag her back towards the alley. She and the older girl's could solve this.

"You want to show us something?" Sam asked. They all followed me into the alley, where Jessica Brown was still a block of ice.

I think that seeing my powers made theirs reveal themselves.

Sam managed to melt jessica.

Carmen won five bets in an hour.

Adana woke up one morning with wings.

Cecily accidentally made the patch of bushes and grass outside of the orphanage grow into more of a jungle.

When we realized about our powers, we realized we didn't need to stay at the orphanage, so we left. It was Carmen's idea originally. One night, when Carmen, Adana, and Sam had snuck into our room to check on us, like they usually did, she had suggested it.

"We can do it!" She whispered, with a nervous glance at the door. "We have powers, now! We'd almost be better off on our own."

"Are you crazy? We wouldn't last a day on our own!"

"I agree. We should run away. I hate it here."

I nodded and pointed at Carmen.

"Final votes on you, Sam."

"Totally! Lets blow this popsicle stand." I had smiled to myself. We were going to be free.

….

"Agatha, wake up, we're here." Cecily was shaking me. "Wake up."

I swatted at Cecily and sat up blearily. We were at the tower. "We're here, Ceci. We're home." She was right. This is my home now.


	7. Chapter 7

**AN: hi, I don't own the Avengers. to irrationalbookworm: not sure what you mean. fight each other, or fight a super villain? or both? They fight a super villain in this one, so I hope thats whatcha wanted. **

**-F**

Adana's POV

From the rooftop, I could see everything in the city. Dozens of stories below me, tiny ant people rushed around, living their lives. Up here, I felt like I ruled the world. Nothing could hold me down. On the ground, or inside, I always felt like a bird in a cage. Running forward, I jumped off the roof of Stark Tower, free falling towards the pavement. As floors whipped past me, I approached the ground faster and faster.

Ten floors up, I extended my wings out to their full reach. As they caught the wind, I slowed. Slowing up, I flapped and, arching my back, I swerved upwards and was soaring up again. Landing on the roof again, I saw that Stark was waiting for me.

"Hiya, birdie." I scowled at him.

"My name is Harpy. And if you don't call me that then I'm Adana, got it?"

"Sure, birdie. Now c'mon, we gotta go."

Instead of snapping at him for the birdie comment, I just rolled my eyes. He was really immature. "Where are we going then?"

"Some quack named 'Volcano' has some hostages at a bank downtown. Some sort of lava powers. Apparently the police are still having trouble finishing him, so we have to head over."

"Kay." We took the stairs off the roof. I felt like I was suffocating as he closed the door behind us. Trampling down the stairs, we joined the others in the kitchen, all dressed for combat. All except for Carmen, who had on camouflage cargo pants, black t-shirt and denim jacket. At my questioning look, she explained.

"Uniform still in the wash. Yogurt incident." She glared daggers at Stark, who pretended not to notice.

"We probably should get going now." Steve said, strapping his shield to his back.

We drove about twenty blocks to a large bank with a dozen police cars parked out

front.

"Okay, I think it's best if we split into groups. Natasha, you and Marauder distract Volcano. Scorch and Harpy can get him from behind. But first, Blizzard and Nightshade can get the hostages to safety, and Stark and I will- wait, where is Stark?" We all glanced around. He was gone.

"I think he said something about a Shawarma shop down the street." Cecily raised her

hand.

Captain rolled his eyes and sighed. "I'll go get him. You guys can handle this without us." He jogged off down the street.

"Well!" Sam clapped her hands, bringing us back to Earth. "Lets go kick a Volcanoes ass."

We split up. Carmen and Romanoff went straight up to the front doors, the distraction. Neither of them looked very happy about this, for very different reasons I suspected, but they did without complaint. Agatha and Cecily slipped around back. Cecily would send a rose when they had found a way in. Until then, Carmen and Romanoff would stall. We didn't want to (Sam and I didn't want to) attack until the hostages were out of the building.

Carmen's POV

Pushing open the glass doors of the bank, Romanoff and I entered making as much noise as to attract attention but not seem suspiciously like we were trying to attract attention. It was kinda hard.

"Hoy! Come out! We're with the police. We want to talk." I yelled.

Standing in the door to the bank vault was a shortish man with a scruff of white blond hair and bushy eyebrows sticking up from under lab goggles. He wore a scarlet lab coat with gold buttons and dark brown boots with flames embroidered on them. '_Way overkill.' _I thought.

"Yes! The police! Have you come to hear my demands?"

I could see about twenty people tied up in the vault behind him. There was no way into the vault but the door. Crap.

"Change of plan." Romanoff whispered. "We have to stick to attack. There's no other way." I nodded solemnly, and we charged.

Sam's POV

When I saw them attack, I knew what I had to do. They immediately realized they couldn't face this guy.

"What are you-" Adana started to ask, but I was already up the steps and throwing open the door. I ran inside, Harpy on my heels. I watched in horror as Volcano held up his palms, and lava spread across the floor of the room. Carmen climbed onto a metal filing cabinet, and was then trapped in an ocean of lava. Romanoff was more lucky, out of the way of the lava.

But something was… wrong with Carmen. She stood stock still, eyes glazed and vacant. As I watched, she sat jerkily down, and held up her hands, palms up, just like Volcano did. Then she turned towards me, and my heart stopped.

Her eyes were pure black orbs.

I screamed.

Adana's POV

As soon as Sam screamed, I realized what it was. Carmen was…. weird. Black eyes, pale and sweaty, and she had no shadow.

"Get Volcano!" I yelled to her. "I'll grab Carmen!" Lucky the bank had a high ceiling. Flapping my wings awkwardly, I rose about a foot over the lava and sped towards Carmen.

When I got close enough, I grabbed her arms, and lifted her with me.

She fought and kicked mercilessly, and it was a struggle not to drop her. I landed with a thud on the floor, still battling her. As her feet touched the floor, she looked stunned. Then her eyes rolled up in her head, and she collapsed.

"What the-"

"LITTLE HELP!?" Sam hollered from where she was standing knee-deep in lava. It didn't seem to hurt her, but she was having trouble fighting Volcano. I flapped my wings again, and lifted off once more. The heat was getting intense, and I felt the bottoms of my feet blister as I got closer to the lava then I should have. The heat waves coming off Volcano were just as hot, and I couldn't get close.

Sam was on her own.

"Hey!" I turned to see Iron Man arrive with a scowling Captain America, BLizzard and Nightshade behind them. I flew toward them.

Landing in front of them, I quickly relayed the situation. "Carmen is down, but she was, like, being possessed anyways, Romanoff is stranded on the desk in the corner, and Sam is in battle with Volcano. I can't get close. We have to-"

The Captain raised his hand, and threw his shield. It hit Volcano in the head, and knocked him out.

"Oh. Or we could do that."

We spent another half hour dragging Volcano to jail, and freeing his captives. We drove back to the tower, with Carmen wrapped in blankets in the backseat, shivering and snoring.

"Describe it again." Stark said. He was very interested in Carmen's odd symptoms before her collapse.

"Her eyes were all black, and pale, and she had no shadow. She didn't recognize me, and she was in the same position as Volcano."

"Yeah." Sam broke in. "His eyes were like hers, all black."

"Huh." Stark said, chewing his Shawarma thoughtfully. "I wonder…." he glanced at the cap, as if asking permission to say something. The cap nodded solemnly. "Well, a long time ago, there was a villain named the Red Skull."

"We know. He was a nazi scientist."

"He wasn't the only one. His right hand man, Dr. Vorgazin, was testing similar procedures, to make super soldiers. With him too, the serum went wrong, but instead of the whole redhead thing, he was given the ability to…." He said the next part in a rush, as if it would be more pleasant if he said it fast. "Control people by stealing their shadows. His name was Shade. I think that's what happened to the kid."

"Her shadows back now. Does that mean she'll been normal when she wakes up?" Sam asked nervously, but my mind was still spinning.

"Why would he control Carmen? What could he gain?"

"Not sure." Romanoff spoke. "But it couldn't have been good. However what Samantha said about Volcano is the most worrying to me. I think Shade was controlling him, just to see us in action for some reason." She bit her lip. "And whatever that reason was, it couldn't have been good."


	8. Chapter 8

**hi, this is F, just here to tell u that I'm probably going to be adding chapters less often because I'm working on a Heroes of Olympus fan fiction with A (The seven plus two, if u like heroes of olympus please read). I'll still post new chapters but less often. Sorry. I don't own the Avengers, and yeah. I hope you enjoy. **

Wren's POV

We all crammed into the SUV again and headed out. We were going to a secret military bunker that might still have the original hardcover files on Shade. When the cap had rescued all those soldiers from the Nazi scientists way back when, and saved Bucky and everybody, he had also grabbed some files. He hadn't known what they were at the time, but they might tell us about Shade's weaknesses if we could find them at the bunker.

The trip was uneventful, and we landed at sunset. I don't know where we were because the Avengers wouldn't tell us. "It is a secret base after all." Dr. Banner had told Cecily when she had complained about the secrecy.

We rented a car and drove out to the middle of nowhere, to a big empty field. The only thing there was crumbling cement walls. Something had once been here, but it was long gone. "That whole trip for nothing." I groaned. "There's nothing here."

The cap just laughed. "The whole point of a bunker is that it's under ground. Spread out, find some mechanism to open the entrance. We fanned out and waded through the tall grass, trying to find something helpful in the fading light.

"I think I found-" Romanoff called. "Oh no. Just litter. Never mind."

About a half an hour later, when it was full dark, the cap called to gather at the car. I knew I should go, but I was standing behind a partially-collapsed cement wall, in what must have once been…. Actually I wasn't sure. There was a rusted wood-burning furnace on its side, and rotted wood, like from furniture.

"Come on Carmen! Lets go!" But something in my gut told me not to. Something was here, and I could feel it. I could sense it. I crouched behind the concrete, beside the furnace. My hand tingled, and it moved towards the furnace without me meaning it too.

"Carmen! Where are you! Its not funny!" I could barely hear them anymore. I now _really_ couldn't stop myself now. I clutched at my hand, trying to stop it, but I slid the latch on the furnace door, slid it open, and reached inside.

"Get over here NOW!" This time it was Romanoff's stern voice.

"Carmen!"

"Where are you?" My hand ran found a tiny nick on the inside of the door easily, like it had done it before. I couldn't stop. I physically couldn't stop. I tried to scream, but there was a pressure on my lungs like I couldn't breath.

"Carmen!" As the nick clicked in, the patch of earth next to me slid down and to the side, and suddenly my legs were moving, and I wasn't in control anymore, and I dragged myself into the opening, and I could hear my friends calling, and as the earth closed over me, and I fell, I put the last of my energy into a scream as the last of the light disappeared.

Sam's POV

The sun was setting. It was too dark to find anything, but I wandered into the field without complaint. I spent the time climbing a tall crumbling wall. Teetering on the top, I stood up wobbly. Looking out over the field I saw Romanoff and Stark examining something on the ground to my right. Agatha and Cecily were still sitting on the hood of the rental car. Carmen was all the way at one end of the field, and Adana all the way at the other. I suddenly heard the cap call to re-group at the car, and I jumped with surprise and tumbled off the wall, skinning my knee. I stumbled back over to the car, where everyone but Carmen was waiting.

"Are you okay?" Adana asked.

"I just fell off one of the walls." I rolled up the leg of the jeans. It was just a skinned knee, nothing too major. "I'm fine though." Adana raised her eyebrows at the fact that I was climbing one of the walls, but didn't say anything.

"Where's Carmen?" Cecily was tugging at Adana's frayed jean shorts. "She didn't come back." So then we started calling for her, but she didn't call back. I was just starting to get nervous, when we heard her scream from the edge of the clearing. It was the sort of scream that only happens from pain and fear and desperation, and it was suddenly cut short like a hand had been clamped over her mouth.

"Thats Carmen." I said. And I began to sprint towards the scream. I didn't care that I was mad at her, and I didn't care that she had given us up, but all I could hear was my heartbeat in my throat and my blood pounding in my ears, and I knew that I had to find my friend.

I could hear the others behind me, and my leg stung, but I suddenly stopped. I didn't know where Carmen had been. Which way to go. I had a sudden mental image of the field from the top of the wall, and Carmen crouched at the far end. I started again, my hoodie flying behind me, limping slightly as I ran, not caring. My lungs burned and I had a side cramp, but the farther I ran the faster I went.

I drew up short at the place where I had seen Carmen. Nothing was here but a broken furnace and some rotten wood beams. _And the faintest square outline in the grass beside the furnace._ I dropped to my knees in the grass, not sure what I was looking for.

"What….Is….That?" Cecily gasped, out of breath.

"Its like this part of the ground sunk down." I said, pressing down on the ground. "I saw Carmen over here…."

"Allow me." The cap taps on my shoulder, and I stand back. He lifts his shield, and strikes the ground so hard that my fillings rattle. It creaks, groans, and falls into a secret room underneath. I start forward before anyone can stop me.

"Come on, Carmen's down there!" I leap into the hole. Tumbling through the darkness, I land on a hard concrete floor, stumbling and falling on my side.

"Are you okay?" Adana shouts down. The hole is about seven feet above me. I scramble to my feet.

"I'm fine. C'mon down, its not far." Stark jumps down, followed by Adana carrying Cecily under one arm, and Agatha under the other. Romanoff is the first to land on her feet, followed by the cap and Dr. Banner. My hands spark, and flames flicker across my palms, lighting the room.

It's all concrete, desks scattered around, like they might have been in rows at some point, but no longer. A door on the other side of the room has been torn off its hinges, revealing the dark hallway on the other side. Two more doors opened in two other walls, to my left and to my right. A thick layer of dust covered everything.

"Which way?" I whispered. It didn't seem like the type of place to speak loudly.

"Listen." Romanoff put a finger to her lips. We stood in silence. From the hallway in front of me, I could hear the faintest of murmuring, humming, buzzing sound. "That way." She pointed at the door…. to my left.

"No, I hear something down that one." I motion towards the front door.

"Its the right door, guys, can't you hear it?"

"I can't hear anything at all."

"It's coming from all of the doors but that one, silly." We all heard it, but no one could place it.

"We have to split up." Dr. Banner decided. "Captain, you take Adana and go right. Natasha, you and I will go left with Cecily. Stark, Sam, and Agatha will go straight. Hurry, we have to find Carmen, the file, and get out as soon as we can." With no further discussion, we all sprint down our assigned hallway.

Agatha and Stark are right behind me as we run. My hands keep the hall lit to a certain extent. We run until we reach a fork. Stark and Agatha go one way, and I go the other. Running alone now, I can hear nothing but my footsteps and breathing. I suddenly stop.

I'm sure someone is behind me. I'm so sure I can almost picture a shadowy figure behind me. Spinning around, I see nothing. Just my imagination. I turn and run farther, to another door, pushing it open I find another office room. Suddenly, behind me, I hear a scream. It's distant, but I think its Adana. Theres four doors in this room. I spin around to see which way she is, and when I stop again I realize my mistake. I don't remember which way I came in by. I'm lost.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: hi, f here. sorry it took so long to get this one out, i kind of left you with a cliffhanger. I hope you enjoy, I don't own the avengers, and I hate wednesdays. **

Carmen's POV

When I could see again, I was standing in a room that I recognized. It had dark purple peeling wallpaper, and a bunk bed with itchy brown blankets. It had one window, with the blinds drawn tightly. I was all alone, but I could hear voices in the hallway. I knew where I was. It was my old room at the orphanage.

"I dunno, Sam." I jumped. It was my voice. "I think we could get in a lot of trouble for that."

"Exactly!" It was Sam. And then the door burst open, and I dove behind it. Sam came in first, but she looked different. Her hair was shorter, and her nose was unbroken. She was pulling me behind her, or a younger version of me at any rate. My hair was more grown out, and I was shorter. I closed the door behind us, not even noticing me, if that makes sense.

"Hey!" I said. "Over here." But they didn't hear me. I put a hand on Sam's shoulder, but it passed right through her. I gasped, clapping my hands to my mouth. I leaned against the wall, and watched as young Sam and I plopped down on our bunks.

"It would be fun! And besides, its not like we have anything better to do this weekend. Sneak out, borrow some bikes-"

"Borrow?"

"We would return them after! Drive out to…. Anyplace nice really, enjoy the fresh air, and get back before anyone notices!"

"Adana would have a heart attack. We should think of something _legal_ to do this weekend." It was then that the door flew open again. Adana stood there, long overcoat on as usual, hands on hips, and scowl on her face.

"Come on you two." Adana said. "There's two new girl's, and we're supposed to be introducing them to everybody." Sam rolled her eyes, but she and I both stood up.

"Hey!" I said, trying again to touch my younger self as she made for the door. This time she noticed me, but as she turned, everything else in the room froze. Sam and Adana stopped mid step, Sam's mouth open as she talked. Younger me's face was frozen like a mask. Suddenly everything around us was darkening. The wallpaper was tumbling to the floor, the bunk bed sinking down into the floor. Adana and Sam were gone.

"Your dreaming Carmen." The younger me said in a dull flat voice. "Your dreaming, and its time to wake up."

**Hi, sorry this chapter is so short and so weird. It doesn't really have any relevance to the story but I wanted to write it so yeah. **


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